气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): The financial impact of fossil fuel divestment

CCPortal

DOI	10.1080/14693062.2020.1806020
	The financial impact of fossil fuel divestment
	Plantinga A.; Scholtens B.
发表日期	2021
ISSN	1469-3062
卷号	21 期号:1
英文摘要	The fossil fuel divestment movement tries to increase awareness about the need for climate action and heralds divestment from fossil fuel producers as a means to combat climate change. Financial investors are increasingly showing interest in the non-financial impact of companies they invest in, i.e. responsible investing. However, they also want to be assured of sufficient returns and limited risks to support the living costs of their ultimate beneficiaries. In this context, we investigate the impact of divestment and the transition of the energy system on investment performance. We rely on an international sample of almost seven thousand companies and study a period of forty years. Further, we investigate scenarios with very different pathways to the transition of the energy system. We find that the investment performance of portfolios that exclude fossil fuel production companies does not significantly differ in terms of risk and return from unrestricted portfolios. This finding holds even under market conditions that would benefit the fossil fuel industry. We conclude that divesting from fossil fuel production does not result in financial harm to investors, even when fossil fuels continue to play a dominant role in the energy mix for some time. Key policy insights Financing the exploration and exploitation of fossil fuel resources is increasingly being regarded as controversial, leading to divestment from this industry. Fossil fuel divestment does not seem to significantly harm financial investors and is not at odds with the fiduciary duty of institutional investors. This paves the way for more extensive initiatives to promote fossil fuel divestment. A smooth energy transition will most likely erode the profitability of fossil fuel firms and their ability to invest. Therefore, governments cannot rely on the fossil fuel industry to finance the energy transition. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
英文关键词	Climate change; divestment; energy system transition scenarios; fossil fuel; investors; stock market
来源期刊	CLIMATE POLICY
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/183696
作者单位	Department of Economics, Econometrics and Finance, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands; School of Management, University of Saint Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Plantinga A.,Scholtens B.. The financial impact of fossil fuel divestment[J],2021,21(1).
APA	Plantinga A.,&Scholtens B..(2021).The financial impact of fossil fuel divestment.CLIMATE POLICY,21(1).
MLA	Plantinga A.,et al."The financial impact of fossil fuel divestment".CLIMATE POLICY 21.1(2021).